As anyone who knows me knows, I’m sort of a sociopathic fan of Cartoon Network’s series ADVENTURE TIME. It represents something truly imaginative, inventive and spontaneous — not to mention fun!
Having recently gotten to do AN ACTUAL ADVENTURE TIME STORY for issue #20 of the KaBOOM! ADVENTURE TIME comic (order it here!) , I thought I’d share with you some of the best pieces from my collection of ADVENTURE TIME art. My full collection is online in this gallery.
Here are some of the best pieces, with commentary.
First, I’ve been lucky enough to get some art from many of the talented people who work on the show, including creator Pendleton Ward…
,,,Andy Ristaino, who’s done many of the character designs and now writes for the show….
…and a couple pieces by Jesse Moynihan, who’s written/storyboarded many of the most surreal episodes and does the FORMING webcomic. Here’s a piece Jesse did of the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant, one of my favorite one-off characters from the show.
I also did a trade with Jesse for one of the most unique pieces in my collection. With each new episode that airs, the writers/artists on the show do a unique drawing they post on the show’s Tumblr that relates to the events of the episode. This is from “Reign of Gunters” (originally “Gunthers”) showing Finn reading the pick-up artist book “Mind Games” by “J.T. Dawgzone” (later changed to “Jay T. Doggzone.” This includes the only known appearance of “Dawgzone” to date, on the book’s back cover.
And here is Marceline the Vampire Queen by Rebecca Sugar, who wrote/storyboarded many of the best Marceline episodes (“It Came From the Nightosphere,” “What was Missing,” “I Remember You,” “Simon and Marcy”) and also wrote many of Marceline’s songs. Sugar has left the series to do her own show, the upcoming STEVEN UNIVERSE, but it was a great thrill to get a piece from one of the creators who helped define this character and created some of the show’s most emotional moments. This is also signed by Olivia Olson, the voice of Marceline.
Marceline has been one of the characters artists most want to draw from the show. One of the first pieces I got for my collection was a drawing of her by Kate Beaton, the genius cartoonist behind HARK! A VAGRANT. It is also signed by Olivia Olson.
Here’s a walnut-ink commission of Marceline by Ethan Nicolle, creator of the webcomic and animated series AXE COP.
And here’s Marceline by Brandon Graham of Image Comics’ PROPHET and such surreal SF delights as KING CITY and MULTIPLE WARHEADS.
A very nice piece of Marceline and Jake by Nathasha Allgeri, who created Fionna and Cake for ADVENTURE TIME and did the amazing short BEE AND PUPPYCAT for Cartoon Hangover on YouTube.
And I just got this stunning commission by Robbi Rodriguez, where Marceline rocks out big time.
In addition, it’s been great fun getting artists with a wide variety of styles to bring those styles to the different characters from the show.
For example, Chester Brown, whose tales often deal with very, very dysfunctional looks at relationships, did a dynamite job with this melancholy Ice King.
Brown’s good friend and contemporary Seth, who beautifully captures a wintry sense of melancholy in his work, brought a nice dignity to Ice King’s human alter ego, Simon Petrikov.
James Harren, who does more horror/fantasy type work, blew me away with this terrifying take on Marceline’s Dad, Hunson Abadeer.
Ramon Perez did an unforgettably gross variation on Ricardio, the Heart Guy.
Here’s a wry Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant by Jennifer Hayden…
…and a super-adorable Buff Baby Finn by Katie Cook, who writes the MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC comic.
Becky Dreistadt, who does the amazing TINY KITTEN TEETH comic, did this beautiful Fionna and Cake, and has gone on to do a number of stories and covers for the AT comic.
And Lucy Knisley, who’s done some Fionna and Cake comics, did this very sweet piece.
Jeffrey Brown did this take on BMO “playing with itself”…
…while Andy Runton of OWLY did this piece of BMO playing with Jake and Lady Rainicorn’s offspring. PUPPIES!
Tom Fowler, who does all sorts of surreal fantasy characters, did a hulking take on Billy the hero.
And Jeremy Bastian of CURSED PIRATE GIRL did this nasty Ice Queen, which was colored by Beck Seashols.
Janet K. Lee of RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN brought her dapper style to Peppermint Butler, her favorite character from the show.
And Pen Ward himself praised this piece of the Earl of Lemongrab by Jeff Lemire, who did a most ACCEPTABLE! job.
The Lich (or the Lich King, as originally pitched), is very popular with creators who have a more horror-based style, as his countenance of PURE EVIL really lets them do some nightmarish work.
This is by Charles P. Wilson III of THE STUFF OF LEGEND.
This one is by Nathan Fox, and hews closer to the character’s animated design.
Duncan Fegredo, who’s done many of the Hellboy comics with Mike Mignola, combined a few different looks for this grayscale commission.
And Ted Naifeh of COURTNEY CRUMRIN did one with its roots in classic mythology — there’s sort of a folktale, Middle Ages quality to this one.
And finally, here’s Finn and Jake themselves by the Spanish cartoonist Liniers. This just makes me happy!
I’ve gotten a lot of great pieces, though I might stop soon — my personal goal is 200 different artists, and I’m already up to about 180! (there’s a few repeat artists and a couple updated/colored pieces in my gallery)
Again, you can check out my full collection of stuff here!
